The present invention relates to gardening tools and, more particularly, to weeding tools.
Various types of hand-held gardening tools are known in the prior art for dislodging and pulling weeds. Such tools typically operate to break up and loosen the soil around large roots so that the weed may be pulled manually with its large roots intact. Some tools operate merely to cut the stem or main taproot of the weed at or below the surface of the soil. A common disadvantage of the aforementioned tools is that often the deep main taproot is broken and a portion left in place where it can regenerate.
Another common disadvantage of all of the aforementioned tools is that they do not adequately remove small hair-like roots, or rootlets, that occur as delicate offshoots of larger weed roots. Such rootlets are typically broken off of larger weed roots and left in the ground during weeding. Because they are numerous and of a small size it has not been practical to attempt to remove them during weeding. Further, it is too tedious and time-consuming to attempt to remove such rootlets in a separate, subsequent operation after the weeds and their primary roots have been removed. Nevertheless, in many species of weeds such rootlets regenerate and propagate to create additional weeds.
Accordingly, it is an object and purpose of the present invention to provide a weeding tool that may be employed to dislodge and remove large weed roots as well as small rootlets.
It is also an object and purpose of the present invention to provide an improved weeding tool that operates to prevent the recurrence or repropagation of weeds by removing small rootlets from the soil during weeding.
It is another object and purpose of the present invention to provide a weeding tool that removes small rootlets from the soil in the ordinary course of removing large roots in a conventional manner.